Interior designers often say they are their own worst client – not so Tania Handelsmann, of Sydney interior design studio Handelsmann + Khaw.
The designer immediately recognised the potential in her own home when she purchased it eight years ago. “When I came across this house, I was immediately won over by its Regency period detailing – the dentil cornices and exterior frieze, the columns on the front porch and the handsome simplicity of the internal windows with no architraves,” Tania recalls. When she finally undertook the six-month renovation in 2021, she not only had a clear vision, but she’d also collected many of the pieces that now take pride of place in the reimagined interior.
Located in Sydney’s Paddington, the house is one of a pair of 1850s Regency-style terraces that were originally one freestanding home. “It was built before many of the surrounding Victorian terraces, which is why the architectural style is not typical of this neighbourhood,” Tania explains, who lives there with her husband Andrew, children Oscar and Harper and Russian Blue cat Babushka.
This article is a preview of ‘At Home with Tania Handelsmann‘ featured inside the latest issue of est magazine, Sense of Place.
